Man, 84, Wife, 81, Found Dead In House

Suicide Note Left At Scene, Police Say

April 7, 2005|By Brian Haas Staff Writer and Staff Researcher William Lucey contributed to this report.

PLANTATION — Neighbors said Edward Freund struggled for years with his wife's constant medical problems, complaining once that he wished it would all be "over."

But they never expected what police found Wednesday morning at the couple's Lauderdale West home.

Police found Edward and Ruth Freund dead in an apparent murder-suicide. Investigators found a suicide note at the scene, but did not disclose its contents Wednesday.

Police spokesman Sgt. Al Butler Jr. said police were called to the 8200 block of Northwest 15th Street shortly before 9 a.m. to check on the couple. The officer found the Freunds inside the home dead of gunshot wounds, Butler said. Police think Edward Freund, 84, shot his 81-year-old wife and then turned the gun on himself.

The 30-year residents of the retirement community kept to themselves and didn't socialize, neighbors said. Paul Levy, a neighbor and longtime friend of the couple, said that Edward Freund was a retired air traffic controller supervisor. Ruth Freund, who used a wheelchair, was active in Women's American ORT, a Jewish charity organization that focuses on women and children's issues, Levy said. He said Ruth Freund had medical problems that required frequent hospital visits.

Neighbors said they thought the couple had a son in Chicago, but rarely saw visitors at the Freund home. Police confirmed that they had notified a relative in Chicago of the couple's deaths, but would not elaborate.

The first sign that something was amiss Wednesday was when Valerey Tomlin, a caretaker with All Professional Home Care who has checked up on the couple every morning for the past year, arrived at the house around 8 a.m. and found it locked tight, she said.

"Normally, they leave the door open in the morning," Tomlin said.

Tomlin called police and they got a key to the house from Levy. The officer entered and came out quickly with the news.

"They said he shot the wife and he shot himself," Tomlin said.

Levy said he and other neighbors recounted hearing about the couple's many visits to the hospital and often saw emergency crews at the home when Ruth Freund fell and couldn't get up.

Mary Jaichon, the Freunds' neighbor of eight years, said Ruth Freund returned from the hospital Tuesday.

Neighbors didn't know what ailed Ruth Freund, and Tomlin declined to reveal such details, but neighbors said her husband grew frustrated with the constant hospital trips and intense care she required. Levy said Edward Freund would occasionally talk about the struggle during their morning bike rides through the neighborhood.

"He was always frustrated," Levy said. "At certain times he would say to me, `I get to the point that I wish that this was over.'"

Experts say that elderly couples facing serious illness sometimes see murder-suicide as a solution. Donna Cohen, a professor at the University of South Florida's Department of Aging, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2002 that some elderly husbands with sick wives commit murder-suicide to end their lives on their own terms.

Still, Levy said he cannot believe that Edward Freund would become so desperate as to kill his wife and himself, as police think happened.

"I spoke to him last night at 8 o'clock and he was fine," Levy said. "I never pictured him doing that. It shocked the hell out of me.